Professor Sir Charles Godfray

Charles Godfray is a population biologist with broad interests in science and the interplay of science and policy.  He was an undergraduate at Oxford University moving to Imperial College to do a PhD. After a short period back at Oxford he returned to Imperial College, eventually becoming Head of Biology and Director of the NERC Centre for Population Biology. He returned again to Oxford in 2006 and is currently Professor of Population Biology and Director of the Oxford Martin School.  His research has involved experimental and theoretical studies in population and community ecology, epidemiology and evolutionary biology.  His two main current projects are the control of malaria vectoring mosquitoes using novel genetic interventions, and the health, environmental and economic consequences of changing patterns of consumption of meat and dairy.  He is particularly interested in food security and chaired the Lead Expert Group of the UK Government Office of Science’s Foresight project on the Future of Food and Farming and until recently chaired Defra’s Science Advisory Council.  He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2001 and knighted in 2017 for services to science and science advice to government.